Mumsnet could do better (part deux)

[stomachameleon]

Ok I have taken the bait because I think it's important we have somewhere to chat and decompress.

There is an awful lot of name changing going on and we must remember that although it should be, this is not a safe space. We are followed here and that is worth considering (especially if you don't want to be deleted)

I am grateful for all the love and support though and I thank each and every one of you. You are all stronger than you know. I wish I had something profound to say but I don't...: this will have to do!

@Trulywonderful I'm here. I often lurk because I find the constant Jew-hate distressing and I don't feel sufficiently articulate to repudiate the corrupted thoughts of others but I'm here. I'm surprised by the tales of the hostage experiences (because I don't have the warped imagination to conjure what has happened to them) and I'm unsurprised too (because we all knew it was going to be bloody awful when truth came to light).

No not that

Anything but that

Thank you for unlurking (Is that a word or have I invented yet another new word) for me.

I am not like some other posters that have read all the details recently of the sex abuse and rapes. I deliberately only read quick descriptions just enough to get a rough idea.

Since the first few days after the pogrom, when I watched videos and read accounts of what happened I have not been able to take much more of the details

At the beginning I posted that some of the hostages would be treated okish to keep the western idiots happy. However the rest would experience terrible things. This is what my knowledge of this type of situation and these people told me

Since the release of some of the hostages and then the truth coming out I have been feeling very not OK about being right (Normally I like being right most the time, however this time I really wish I was wrong)

I don't get cross on threads about people putting warnings on some links for no reason at all. Tweets like the one I just read really do upset me. I am literally teary and trembling.

A bit of late night poetry, by Muriel Rukeyser. Written during WW2, still feels searingly relevant now.

To be a Jew in the twentieth century
Is to be offered a gift. If you refuse,
Wishing to be invisible, you choose
Death of the spirit, the stone insanity.
Accepting, take full life. Full agonies:
Your evening deep in labyrinthine blood
Of those who resist, fail, and resist: and God
Reduced to a hostage among hostages.

The gift is torment. Not alone the still
Torture, isolation; or torture of the flesh.
That may come also. But the accepting wish,
The whole and fertile spirit as guarantee
For every human freedom, suffering to be free,
Daring to live for the impossible.

Since the first few days after the pogrom, when I watched videos and read accounts of what happened I have not been able to take much more of the details

No. As awful as it sounds to have the luxury to do this when others have actually experienced it, there has to be some element of self-protection. Everything you read about it leaves a mark on your soul.

And @Trulywonderful I had it at 56.

ETA wrong thread!

@25milesfromhome Thank you a very powerful poem

Really 56, to me the cave seems much younger

@25milesfromhome

Probably best said here out of the way

And look I did the same too

True

And I am a very visual person. When I read stuff like this the pictures of it in my head stay with me

The stuff I read back in 2021 about massacres on the land before 1948. That ere like the October pogrom in violence, torture, rape and murder has stayed with me. So when I read stuff about this pogrom I remember the others too. This is very disturbing because it is a nightmare that these things have repeated themselves in my lifetime.

Sorry folks if I am being an attention seeking baby on here

Well not that sorry about the attention seeking bit. I am always a bit attention seeking

However I do feel rather babyish about this. I am a grown woman and a mother. So need to be a bit stronger about these things

@Trulywonderful, I don’t think you should be beating yourself up or calling yourself names. I don’t think strength is defined by the ability to stomach reading about torture and pain. Being hardened isn’t a virtue, in order to empathize with others you have to be able to feel first, a whole range of emotions, including the rough ones. Your sensitivity is a good thing even if right now it’s a double edged sword 🫂♥️

@Trulywonderful ❤

Some things just hit you like a bolt. I read some pretty awful things about the hostages a couple of nights ago, then just happened to see a really grotesque new thread on the FWR which was deleted thankfully, but straight off the back of what I'd read it really floored me.

Wise words @EllaDisenchanted

Fully clothed for the Valentines edition please @noblegiraffe 🙏

Seconded 😂

@Trulywonderful I remember being unexpectedly and extremely shocked by seeing a video a month or so ago from 7th October. It was a video of a young hostage being taken, and I watched it after that particular hostage had been released, so I knew there was a "happy" ending. But then at the end of the video there was the back of a Palestinian boy, I'd say maybe very young teen or possibly even younger, running around carrying a massive gun and I just broke down. It really floored me seeing with my own eyes that an armed child had been involved in the events of that day, helping to kidnap a child of the same age. It's weird the things that end up triggering really, really strong emotions. It can't always be predicted, and it doesn't always make sense. I mean, I've seen objectively way more traumatic videos from this conflict than the one I'm talking about, yet seeing proof that at least one Palestinian child was actively involved honestly broke me for a while.

I hope you are feeling a bit better this morning

Yes Hum the children getting involved or being affected by this is definitely one of the most triggering things. We are probably all mothers or aunts or work with children etc. Have children the same age maybe. The idea this could be one of are children getting hurt/killed/radicalised is a whole sea of emotions at times. Then the generation trauma or whatever people want to call it that as Jewish people we feel about all this on top of the emotions most feel too about this conflict. It is to say the least a lot at times

I am going to give myself a few days time out from all this. It is much needed I am sure you will all agree judging by my posts last night. Don't worry I am okish now. Have a ridiculous amount of work to do in the next couple of weeks too. So probably very good timing to have a break from mumsnet

I agree with the others on this Giraffe, definitely clothes on. Nobody needs to see Jez with carefully placed fruit bowl or vase in a calendar girls situation 😂

@etmoiandme That thread was horrible. Really vitriolic and just pure nasty. It popped up around the same time a friend told me she didn't even think Hamas were terrorists—coming from a place of sheltered ignorance and Tumblr overuse, but even so all that has really thrown me.

I've been lurking here since the old thread but as I'm not Jewish I didn't feel comfortable barging in. I will, however, de-lurk for this one post as I wanted to say something supportive. I hope it is not too poorly phrased—it's hard to write something heartfelt without it sounding like a self-congratulatory pat on the back...

I know the younger generation (those under 30) can be very dogmatic and very uncritical of the lens they see the Israel / Palestine conflict through. I can promise we aren't all like that, even if we were raised by parents who were. We want to learn the history that gets shunted to the side. We see the antisemitism coming out of social media and Labour-supporting peers, even our own families, where people we once respected insist the emperor is wearing clothes. We want our children to be pro-Jewish, and not just selectively so. This is the case with most of my close friends who are all in my age cohort.

I hope to travel to Israel one day, it's long been my dream to stay with a Jewish host family and learn more about Judaism and / or the practices.

Shabbat shalom, and may you all have a restful time.

@Trulywonderful take all the time you need. I had an enforced few weeks off while in MN jail and I felt so much better for it. You start remembering that the real world is really quite different from the MN world.

Take care of yourself, and feel better soon!

@Trulywonderful I completely get where you are coming from. I’ve unfollowed anybody on social media who insist on sending these absolutely awful and traumatising videos from October 7. It’s bad enough hearing about what happened without having to see it particularly as I am a friend of one of the families that was murdered in their home.

The reports from the hostages following their release have been awful to hear including being drugged before their release so they appeared calm and compliant. One of the girls who had been shot in the arm was operated on by a vet without the use of any anaesthetic and was told if she made a noise she would be killed. I’m sure the psychological trauma will stay with them for a longtime

@Trulywonderful have a good Shabbos and a restful Mumsnet break x

@Trulywonderful you will be missed but school beckons I imagine. I am back Monday (sobs) so will be posting less (which is probably a good thing)

Last night I watched a video clip from Shiri and Yarden Bibas' wedding, and it absolutely floored me with sadness. They were so happy, hopeful, and unaware of what was to come for them.

I need to take a break from social media too. It's too much.

Sorry @PurpleChrayne x

@Trulywonderful you will be much missed on the forums. Take care and I look forward to seeing you back very soon. X

Are you OK @PurpleChrayne ?

I too have stayed off social media as you never know what is going to pop up. Thinking of you.